Category: Articles on Sales Management

Your business is recruiting for a sales rep because you are expanding your sales force or you have lost a sales rep recently.

When it comes to recruiting for a sales rep, the truth is, it is one of the most difficult tasks for sales managers.

The reason for this is the time is so short to get to know the candidate and very often, despite your best effort, there are so many factors at play, when choosing the right one.

This brings me to the crux of this newsletter. What are some of the things that we need to consider when we are recruiting for a sales rep?

This is also an opportunity for people who are considering a sales role, to understand what they need to think about before jumping in. I guess that you can see this as a piece of insider information.

Please note that these are just my experience and observation throughout my sales management career when it comes to recruiting for a sales rep. It is not to suggest what is right or wrong.

Sales management and operation

A big part of sales management strategies is the management of the business’s sales operation. Sales operation is critical when building a successful team.

Sales operation is a set of business processes and activities to support the sales team and everyone in the business. It is mostly the administrative side that the sales manager needs to look after.

Some way view this as the boring side of sales management. However, without establishing this foundation, it is very difficult to build a successful sales team.

I would like to remind everyone that I am sharing my sales management experience that has enabled me to build successful sales teams. I appreciate that every sales manager do this differently.

The list of sales operation discussed

1. Document the sales operation clearly
2. Recruit by looking at the now and future
3. Train to establish independence
   3.1. Induction
   3.2. Onboarding
   3.3. Product training
   3.4. Sales training
4. Establish an effective sales process
5. Customer Relationship Management system
6. Targeted marketing using the CRM
7. White papers and application notes to build credentials
8. Return on investment in conference and trade displays
9. Reporting on what matters
10. Territory plan designs need to be revamped completely
11. Forecasting using the CRM
12. Use incentive to drive behavior
13. Cloud technology means portability

The foundation of sales management begins in the sales process and operations rules.
The Sales manager’s ultimate goal is to build a successful sales team. It is a team that is confident, independent and motivated.

There are many ways you can achieve this. As I mentioned, I am sharing my own experience and strategies that had worked for me. It is by all means not the only way.

In this article, we explore how to create the foundation of a successful sales team by establishing a good sales process and operation. We begin our journey by understanding why rules are important.

A sales manager needs to be willing to serve

To build a successful sales team, a sales manager needs to accept that the role is about servanthood that rewards and punishes you at the same time.

Sales management is not glamorous. It tests the limit of your imagination, patience, and sanity.

There is no intent to put you off doing this role. I enjoy this role because it is very rewarding. My sales management experience has been a huge learning curve and the lessons I learned was worth it.

I openly share these hard lessons of my own journey to become a successful sales manager. My honesty can be confronting. You are here to learn. It is pointless to “cotton wool” these experiences.

In the next few weeks, I will share a series of articles that discusses the areas a sales manager need to consider in order to build a successful sales team.

In Part 1, we focus on the reason, pain, joy, and reality a sales manager faces in order to build a successful sales team.

Let’s begin this journey by asking the most important question: